EVER-CHANGING DESIGNER

As an interior designer, Cori Kuechenmeister ’02 has left her mark on offices, restaurants and hotels around the country.

Eight years after graduating, Cori Kuechenmeister ’02 is doing exactly what she hoped when she decided to attend UW-Stout.

Kuechenmeister works for Shea Inc., a design firm from Minneapolis that helps clients with building projects from architectural concepts all the way through to interior design and even purchasing furniture. “The best part about the job is that it’s ever-changing. There’s a variety of work. This was my goal, from the type of projects to the kind of work environment I wanted to get into,” she said.

Kuechenmeister, whose first job was with Wells Fargo doing office remodeling, has been an interior designer at Shea for about five years. She already has a long list of credits, including several restaurants, an office building and a retail building. She spent a year as lead local interior designer on the downtown Minneapolis Chambers Hotel, an art-themed boutique hotel. She worked with other design teams, including one from New York. “Together we came up with some great concepts. I had to take these concepts and make them a reality. To work on a project like this was a thrill for me,” she said of the Chambers project.

She also has worked on another hotel, the Crown Plaza Philadelphia, and was busy during the winter on interior design plans for three Twin Cities-area restaurants.